NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has launched toward a metal-rich asteroid of the same name. The probe took off yesterday from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida on board a “Falcon Heavy” rocket from Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX.
According to initial data, everything went as planned and the probe was in good condition, according to the US space agency NASA. The start had previously been postponed by a day due to bad weather.
NASA boss Bill Nelson spoke of a “successful launch”. NASA manager Nicola Fox said she was excited to see what “treasure trove of scientific research” the “first NASA mission to a metal world” would bring. “By studying the asteroid Psyche, we hope to better understand our universe and our place in it – particularly with regard to the mysterious and unreachable metal core of our own home planet Earth.”
Around 3.5 billion kilometers of route
The “Psyche” probe, which is about the size of a tennis court with its solar sails spread out, was originally scheduled to launch in 2022. But that didn’t work because of computer problems. “Psyche” has to travel around 3.5 billion kilometers to reach the asteroid, which is why the probe cannot get there until 2029 at the earliest.
The potato-shaped asteroid “Psyche” with a diameter of around 279 kilometers orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. It has a surface area of 165,800 square kilometers, which is almost half the size of Germany. According to initial findings, “Psyche” contains a lot of metals. The probe will spend around 26 months studying its composition, giving scientists a better insight into the formation of asteroids, planets and our solar system.
NASA is currently conducting a lot of research on asteroids: With the “Dart” mission, the US space agency had a probe impact on an asteroid last year – and thus changed its orbit. The “Osiris-Rex” mission sent a probe to the asteroid Bennu, which dropped a sample of debris onto Earth a few weeks ago. According to initial studies, this contains traces of water and carbon. The probe is now on its way to the next asteroid – Apophis. After the successful launch of “Psyche”, boss Nelson spoke of an “Asteroid Autumn” by NASA, an “asteroid autumn”.
